"cream puff" news and stories

Happy National Cream Puff Day!

Much like cupcakes, this heavenly dessert is as precious to taste as it is to regard, with two crispy choux pastry shells enveloping a light cream or custard filling, topped off with a dusting of powdered sugar.

Unique by right of the hollow crust it forms, choux pastry is thought to have originated in Renaissance Italy and France, where it was supposedly dubbed "choux" ("cauliflower") for its bulbous appearance. Catherine de Medici's pastry chef is credited with the inclusion of a moist, creamy filling, but it is Antonin Careme who is thought to have perfected the dessert.

The trick of the cream puff is in the pastry, not the pudding. For a detailed recipe, we suggest that of the Food Network, who pairs it with a promising -- if untraditional -- chocolate whipped cream center.

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Meet the highly refined, French cousin of the ice cream sandwich: the profiterole.

Dainty round puffs of pâte à choux pastry are sliced in half for an ice or pastry cream filling, before being drizzled with a smooth chocolate sauce.

Choux pastry (we recommend this comprehensive recipe from "The Joy of Baking") is the same dough that brings us cream puffs, croquembouches, éclairs and the savory gougères. Multifunctional and scrumptious? That's something we can wholeheartedly endorse.

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Few things are as delightful as a cream puff, especially ones that have just been finished with their chocolate topping and haven't even made it to the plate yet, as in this great picture by Alice Q. Foodie. After all, cutting out the plate is cutting out the middleman between the puff and your mouth. These appear to be fairly traditional cream puffs, made with a pâte à choux, but they are filled with an indulgent sounding mocha whipped cream, instead of the somewhat more common plain whipped cream or vanilla pastry cream. Turning to size for a moment, these aren't the giant ones you'll find at Beard Papa's, but the one or two bite size, which is idea for serving with coffee or tea to guests over the holidays. Alice Q. provides her recipe with her post, but it sounds like it makes quite a big batch, so if you're only serving a few, you might want to opt for a recipe that is already scaled down. Once you have mastered the choux pastry, you can use it to make eclairs and deep-fried beignets, as well.

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Millions of women love cream puffs and a good number of them wouldn't mind having a croquembouche - tower of cream puffs - at their wedding. Very few would actually want to be a croquembouche. Ukrainian pastry chef Valentyn Shtefano made his wife's wedding dress entirely out of cream puffs and caramelized sugar. It took over 2 months to make and used 1,500 puffs. Despite the fact that it appears to be heavy, the dress weighed only 20 pounds. Shtefano is a well-know figure in his town due to the elaborate desserts that he makes "in a place where cake is often layers of heavy cream, wafers and nuts or poppy seeds - more something to eat than to look at." His creations, like the dress, are both.

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I haven't been keeping up much with what's going on in the dining underground, mostly because the idea of leaving an air conditioned apartment and braving the sweltering heat outside, even if it's from the apartment to the car, is just too unappealing. However, I did have to run out to the Japanese market here on the westside of Los Angeles, and I noticed something new.

Yes! There is a Beard Papa's Sweets Cafe in West Los Angeles' Little Osaka, along the strip of Sawtelle Boulevard between Santa Monica, known to those who are in the know simply as "Sawtelle." It looks like the FKA (formerly known as) Mousse Fantasy is now sharing space with the Sweets Cafe that is famous for its giant cream puffs, as well as notorious for causing much hype.

I wasn't able to go in, since parking in the area is tight and I didn't have it in me to play Parking Lot Showcase Showdown, but since it's now on the Westside, I have no excuse to not try it.